Willimantic's Blocks Part 6 by Tom Beardsley 11-4-2023 |
This week’s article will continue our look at Willimantic’s blocks and is
a digest of Tom Beardsley’s extensive research into the history of what
was known as “The Mazzola Block”. “In the 1880s, Irish-born Daniel F.
Flaherty purchased an ancient Main Street tenement house and barns. He
planned to build a fine new business block with apartments in the rapidly
expanding city. In December 1891,
a local businessman, Samuel Adams, purchased the barn on Flaherty’s new
property and moved it to his High Street lot. In February, 1892,
Flaherty commissioned the well-known local builder Michael Sullivan, to
erect the Flaherty Block on the site of the old tenement house. A
section of the house was taken down and reassembled in the rear of the
lot to allow for the excavation of a cellar.
The remaining wooden structures were demolished in March,1892,
and construction progressed rapidly. On April 27, 1892, the Willimantic
Chronicle noted that “The substantial foundation for Flaherty’s new
brick block on upper Main Street .is well advanced by Michael Sulli
van.” On May 24, 1892, it was
reported that the “timbers for the first floor in Flaherty Block on Upper
Main Street are being placed into position today.” Work on Flaherty’s
new business and residential block continued throughout the summer of
1892. In August, Armand Trudeau, a local grocer, rented the new blocks
west store. The Flaherty Block was completed in September 1892 and its
eight apartments were immediately rented.
The borough authorities renumbered its homes and businesses in
late 1892 and the new Flaherty block became 931, 933 and 935 Main St.,
Willimantic. The latest addition
to Main became the home of varied businesses.
Number 933 was the address of the block’s apartments on the
second and third floors. The first tenants in the new building reflected
the city’s Irish and French-Canadian population in 1892. Flaherty ran a
saloon and pool and billiards hall in the new building’s west store, and
in 1894 occupied one of his apartments.
On Oct. 5, 1897, Flaherty sold the block to William Ross of
Chaplin, and moved to Hartford.
Ross hired Flaherty's friend, John J. Murphy, to manage the saloon. On
July 26, 1905, William Ross sold the Flaherty block to Alphonse L.
Gelinas who became the building's third owner. Gelinas owned a highly
regarded livery stable and was the proprietor of a saloon at 953 Main
St. In 1907 he established a real estate business in an apartment in his
recently acquired building. Other businesses in the Gelinas block
included a bakery operated by Mrs. Way, William F Pember’s Thread City
Laundry and shoemaker Isadore Heller's store. Gelinas hired Louis
Belanger to operate the saloon in the block. It quickly became a
favorite French-Canadian watering hole. The Belanger Corporation was
established on June 14, 1913, with capital of $8,000. For more than six
years, Gelinas’ partner operated both a saloon and a beer bottling
business in the block. Gelinas was president of the corporation, and
Belanger was secretary-treasurer.
Louis Belanger was born in Baltic on Aug. 11, 1871, and came to
Willimantic as a child when his parents found work in the city's cotton
mills. On leaving school, Belanger worked at American Thread and in
Alphonse Gelinas’ livery stable, and in 1907 Gelinas had no hesitation
in hiring him to look after his new saloon. Belanger died in 1935. He
was described as the “proprietor of a tavern on Main Street,” who
possessed “a quiet but engaging personality with many friends. Alphonse
Gelinas entered local politics and became a city alderman, claims
officer, and appropriations officer. He was also a member of the city's
purchasing committee and highway commission. On Oct. 15, 1919, with
prohibition looming, Gelinas sold the building to an Italian immigrant,
Michele Mazzola and it became known to three generations of Willimantic
residents as the Mazzola block. Mazzola became a leading
Italian-American citizen in town. Alphonse Gelinas died at home in
Windham on Nov. 16, 1931, just three days before his 82nd birthday.
He had been one of the city’s pioneer French Canadian
businessmen, a member of the local St. Jean Baptiste Society, Knights of
Columbus and a devout member of St. Mary's Church.
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